Look Up: Peering clearly and deeply back in time with the James Webb Space Telescope

Astonishment and awe are two things I feel when viewing images released during the first three years since the launch of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). Even if one objects to the ten-billion-dollar price tag on its development, construction, and deployment, the images can give us a sense of wonder and pride in what humans can achieve during a time when the world is in chaos and filled with so much war and suffering. These images and the knowledge about our Universe that is unfolding have already exp … (read more)

Joni Mitchell in the last verse of her song Woodstock writes: “We are stardust, billion-year-old carbon.” Our solar system along with distant stars brimming with exoplanets were formed from gases and dust.

The extra column this month was spurred by the global news of the probability of an impact by asteroid 2024 YR4 in 2032 rising to 3.1%. As of Feb. 26, the probability was downgraded by NASA to near zero, though an impact with the moon has a 1.7% probabili … (read more)

Clusters of stars abound in the heavens. Born of the same parent cloud of dust and gas, star clusters can be small, loosely bound groupings of several stars to those that number in the hundreds of thousands and even millions.

‏Where is our solar system in the vast assemblage of celestial objects in this island Universe we call the Milky Way? To answer that question, we can begin with the beautiful configuration of stars we call Orion, the brightest stars of which are mere hund … (read more)

The new year opens with a better than average meteor shower and a great display of planets, including a six-planet alignment. Venus, Jupiter and Mars shine brightly among the stars in January.